Drug ring broken up

Twenty-seven people from Passaic and Bergen counties and elsewhere face drug-related charges after an 11-month investigation into what authorities described Thursday as a major North Jersey marijuana and gun trafficking network.

The operation involved a weekly street value of about $125,000 in high-potency "sour kush" marijuana, Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes said. With her were officials from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s New Jersey headquarters, as well as Clifton and Passaic police, who were part of the joint investigation dubbed Operation Sour Kush.

Seventeen people were arrested Thursday and the others were arrested during the course of the investigation, officials said. Valdes noted that only seven were from Passaic County, but that many of the others traveled to Passaic County to buy the marijuana. Defendants from Clifton, Passaic, Garfield, West New York, Montclair, Orange, South Orange, Hoboken and Miami were among those arrested.

The suspects, whose ages range from 20 to 35, face such charges as leader of a narcotics trafficking network, which carries a potential life prison sentence; conspiracy to distribute narcotics, which carries a 10-year sentence; possession with intent to distribute, which carries a five-year sentence, and weapons offenses, which also carry terms of up to 10 years.

Valdes said investigators seized a total of 14 handguns, two bulletproof vests, more than 20 pounds of marijuana, a pound of cocaine, Ecstasy, steroids, hashish, painkillers, $245,000 in drug proceeds and eight vehicles during the course of the investigation.

The potent strains of marijuana were brought into northern New Jersey via Florida, California, and New York, authorities said. Both sour and kush are notably stronger in odor and the resulting intoxication from a higher concentration of THC or tetrahydrocannabinol versus other less-potent strains. THC is the most active chemical compound in marijuana. The sour and kush strains have a concentration level of 25 percent, which is up to five times higher THC concentration than other strains.

25 pounds per week

The marijuana network arranged for large amounts of the strains to be supplied on a weekly basis to members of the operation. Detectives estimate that the operation received approximately 25 pounds of the sour and kush marijuana on a weekly basis, with an approximate street value in excess of $125,000.

"The cities of Clifton and Passaic are safer today because of the hard work and dedication of the multiple law enforcement agencies involved in this 11-month investigation," Valdes said. "From the onset, this investigation was designed to identify, arrest and prosecute individuals and gangs responsible for narcotics trafficking in Clifton and Passaic. We are confident this large number of arrests will have a significant impact on reducing crime in our cities today, and in the future."

New Jersey DEA Special Agent Brian Crowell called the operation "extremely dangerous."

"This was a violent drug-trafficking operation," he said. "The guns are gone. The marijuana is gone. The people putting it on the street are gone."